Local Knowedge Needed QT Coral

[+Dogfish]

So I got a hammer on Sunday from a local LFS.  I dipped and scrubbed, No plug needed to be cut off. 2 pin head size things came off. What am I to expect from the local LFS here in Austin as far as unwanted guests?  How long do you QT LPS and SPS when you get them from the 3 stores here.

[FarmerTy]

So I got a hammer on Sunday from a local LFS.  I dipped and scrubbed, No plug needed to be cut off. 2 pin head size things came off. What am I to expect from the local LFS here in Austin as far as unwanted guests?  How long do you QT LPS and SPS when you get them from the 3 stores here.

My simple answer is trust nobody and treat all newcomers the same, no matter the source. If anything, you should trust people with tons of corals less, more chances to have brought something in with each frag. I know that I'm in that group but logically, just makes sense. More potential sources of pests with larger tanks with more frags in them.

I'm only schooled in dipping acros so I'm out of the loop for zoas and LPS so I'll let others chime in here on that.

[+Dogfish]

14 minutes ago, FarmerTy said:

My simple answer is trust nobody and treat all newcomers the same, no matter the source. If anything, you should trust people with tons of corals less, more chances to have brought something in with each frag. I know that I'm in that group but logically, just makes sense. More potential sources of pests with larger tanks with more frags in them.

I'm only schooled in dipping acros so I'm out of the loop for zoas and LPS so I'll let others chime in here on that.

Thanks  Dip twice cut once, or something like that.

[ckyuv]

In my experience nothing beats Bayer for softies and sps and peroxide for zoas. I got coral rx for an anemone when I added it to the tank and tried it on some zoas and it did nothing, still had to dip them in peroxide 

[Timfish]

I use iodine for everything but anemones.  (Sadly, almost everything I see fall off I consider beneficial.)   My concern is more how a coral was maintained as methods to achieve certain color aesthetics can make a coral very sensitive to small environmental changes and potentially can alter the coral holobiont and negatively impact it's immune system.   Additionally, I'm concerned about corals maintained long term with some of these techniques becoming resistant to some of the pathogenic bacterial strains and being a vector (similar to fish building up resistance to ick in one system and transferring it to a clean system).   I realize not very many people can do this but one of the steps I use when trying out new coral from a source I don't have a long term history with or uses methods I think are questionable is to QT it along with corals from one of my display tanks for months to see how they all do.    (One thing to keep in mind is the cheaper an animal is the hardier and more adaptable it's likely going  to be.)   Another consideration in is hardly anyone is looking at bacterial issues but we know at the Species level each holobiont is unique and at the Order level animals are promoting different bacteria strains in the water around them so arguably keeping a mixed reef can be more difficult than keeping corals from just one family or genus.